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Kagamine Rin
Kagamine Rin & Len (鏡音リン・レン), codenamed CV02, are Japanese VOCALOIDs developed and distributed by Crypton Future Media, Inc., and were initially released in December 2007 for the VOCALOID2 engine. They are part of the Character Vocal Series and are both Character Voice VOCALOIDs. There has since been numerous installments such as additional voice banks dubbed 'Append' as well an update to the VOCALOID4 engine and an English vocal. They are the second set of vocals for Crypton's VOCALOID Character Vocal Series. Their voices are provided by the Japanese female voice actress, stage actress and singer, Asami Shimoda (下田麻美 Shimoda Asami). Concept The development of the Kagamines began when Crypton formulated the concept of making a pair of female and male voicebanks. The first idea was for two voices of a girl and her mirror image of the opposite gender, just like twins.http://closeup-nettube.livedoor.biz/archives/809677.html CloseUp NetTube - 鏡音リン・レン特集１・発売元インタビュー (Interview with Crypton "How Rin and Len Kagamine were created") Crypton had the intention to distribute them as twins, but this was not adopted. After seeing many works that depict their relationships differently, Crypton announced in a magazine interview that those would meet their ideal. However, Crypton's final announcement was that they were neither siblings nor lovers.Nikkei Electronics (973) Mar.10,2008,126-127, ISSN 0385-1680"VOCALOID wo Tanoshimou Vol.2" published by Yamaha Music Media,2009, Page 47, ISBN 978-4-636-84438-2 During Append production, Wataru Sasaki (aka. Wat) described them as having one soul between the two of them.link Wat also described that the Append boxart makes the pair seem like twins,link due to the fetal position they were in.link Etymology When the Kagamines were being recorded in 2007, their names had not yet been decided. Their given names of Rin and Len were said to be based on "right" and "left" according to Asami Shimoda. She later confirmed in an interview after the Append release that the names were based on Ken and Rin from Hokuto no Ken, derived from a discussion about names that were familiar from her childhood. Their surname was derived from the developing code combining Kagami (鏡, mirror) and Ne (音, sound). Their codename of "CV02" means "Character Voice 02". Appearance KEI was given a concept by Crypton that included Rin and Len's approximate ages, as well as the idea of them being 'mirror images' and, like Miku, androids. KEI was not given any further direction, as he had already drawn the art for the first release in the Character Vocal Series, Hatsune Miku. Rin was the first of the Kagamines to be illustrated and Len was made to match her, following Crypton's concept. Their leg features were designed to mimic speakers.http://www.p-tina.net/interview/98 P-Tina - Interview(s) with Crypton and KEIVocaloidOtaku - Our Favorite VOCALOIDS: Interview with KEI The keytar Len is often featured holding in merchandise is a YAMAHA KX5. Their main design, of which is most noticeable on their boots, uses the YAMAHA EOS as a design base. Also, each Kagamine has a particular musical clef symbol associated to their design. Rin has a G-clef (Treble-clef) on her shirt, and Len has a F-clef (Bass-clef) on his. In their Append redesigns, they are found on chokers rather than their shirts. When Rin and Len received a new set of vocals during their Act2 release, KEI took the opportunity to fix flaws in their artwork. Kagamine_Rin.png|Act1 Rin Kagamine Rin.jpg|Act2 Rin Kagamine Rin's introduction artwork: *Rin has "Act2" on her arm under her "02" tattoo. *Rin's top was changed in the introductory image between versions around the armpit area. Frills were added to the bottom of her top in Act2. *Her shoulder was not correctly drawn in the original version. *All the yellow bands on her outfit were made bigger on Act2. *Her fringe was made thicker above the left eye. *In Kagamine Rin's artwork, her left knee was thicker and her right leg was too short. KEI corrected this in her Act2 version. Her right leg position changed and so did the position of her left foot. *Forearms have been shortened in Act2. *The cyber-on-normal clothing design on their detached sleeves was changed from a green bar to a blue one. Kagamine Len's introduction artwork: *Kagamine Len has "Act 2" on his headphones. *The cyber-on-normal clothing design on the detached sleeves were changed from a green bar to a blue one. *His fringe was reshaped, other strands were adjusted as well. *Len's face, particularly around the cheekbones, was reshaped. *His left knee had a minor tweak. Boxart changes; *Kagamine Rin's leg position was changed in their boxart so it was lifted off the ground, the only way the previous position would have worked was if her leg were deformed or broken. *Rin's body itself compared to the length of her legs is shorter than in the original boxart, while the legs were longer. *Rin's knee is rounded instead of sharp. *Both had the cyber details changed on their detached sleeves. For their appends, Wat wanted them to have a sense of transparency with their design.link In clarification to what he meant by this, he stated the "transparency" was in reference to their hearts.link Their Append design and the official illustration were made by オサム (osamu). Continuing the tradition of the Item War Internet Meme, many items were proposed for the pair. In the end, Len's item was a banana, because his hair was commented to resemble a bunch of them, while Rin's item was an orange since her bow gave the impression of orange leaves. Before her release, Rin had the road roller assigned to her by accident in a video that received many views suddenly on December 1, 2007. Kagamine Len had yet to be revealed at the time of the road roller meme.link For the V4x design, Rin was given a more silver/whiter look to make her appearance more refreshing.link The design also was based more on the EOS B700 rather than the Kx5 because of it more whiter appearance.link More synthesizer base music symbols were used in addition.link Relations *Hatsune Miku; another member of the Character Vocal Series. *Megurine Luka; another member of the Character Vocal Series. Music featuring Kagamine Rin and Len Examples of usage * * * ---- * * * * ---- * * * * * * }} Additional information Marketing The Kagamines were marketed as "2 vocals for the price of 1" and were aimed to catch the interest of the growing VOCALOID fandom. Unlike Hatsune Miku, they were not an immediate hit, failing to meet marketing expectations despite receiving the same level of promotion as Miku was receiving at the time of their release. After the release of their "Act2" voicebanks, sales picked up steadily and the Kagamines eventually became one of the more heavily marketed VOCALOIDs, though have never met the marketing strength Miku gained before them. Crypton Future Media registered both "Kagamine Rin" and "Kagamine Len" as a trademark on 29th of Jan 2015.linklink Trivia *It took 25 hours (4 hours a day) to record all the Kagamine Appends.http://weekly.ascii.jp/elem/000/000/030/30337/ Weekly Plus - VOCALOID『鏡音リン・レンAppend』発売記念インタビュー第2弾は声優の下田麻美さん♪ (Len Append, interview with Shimoda Asami) *Some call Rin and Len by the incorrect names "Lin" and/or "Ren". Though the romanized version of the word could be either, the English version has been confirmed as "Rin and Len". Since there is no dubbed version to contend with, the names remain the only official names in existence for the vocals. This is also backed up by the origins of their names as "R" (Rin)" and "L" (Len). **Note; "L" and "R" mean "Left and Right", they are the letters you find on a set of headphones (and sometimes other equipment such as speakers). Usually, there is not enough space to write "left" and "right" on headphones. "L" refers to left ear and "R" is right ear. *A total of 10 voicebanks makes the Kagamine package the most expansive set of vocals within the VOCALOID2. They are currently 3rd in the total number of vocals released behind Miku (with 15 vocals) in second and GUMI (with 17) in first. Reputation Google Trends "Kagamine Rin" Google Trends "Len vs. Rin" in Japan |- |Reaction=The Kagamines were slow to gain popularity in the Japanese fandom after the backlash from their original voicebanks. In later years, although between the two of them they had gained the second-highest number of songs, they were not as popular as Hatsune Miku. In the Japanese fandom, Rin is the more popular of the two, with more related works than her counterpart, Len. By the time of their V4x release, the duo had over 100 hit songs between them.link |- |Impact=Because of KAITO's failure, male voicebanks had little demand at the time of the Kagamines' release. Len's voicebank was the only male VOCALOID2 vocal until Gackpo's release.http://internet.watch.impress.co.jp/cda/president/2008/05/12/19477.html INTERNET Watch - クリプトン・フューチャー・メディア社長 伊藤博之氏（前編） (Crypton Future Media president Hiroyuki Itō (part one)) Their designs have spawned many producer based derivatives. |- |Misc=An independent search on Nico Nico revealed that most VOCALOIDs had less than 1,000 videos uploaded onto Nico Nico in 2011 between July 1st and December 15th. The Kagamines, however, managed to gain enough views to not fall into this category. Rin received 2,811 uploads while Len received 2,021. Rin had the 3rd highest total views during this period of any VOCALOID with 5,327,456 views and 477,046 mylists, and Len managed 4,555,580 views and 413,901 mylists. When sorted by average, Len was third with 2254.12 views per video and 204.8 mylists (which was more than Miku’s), and Rin had 1895.22 views per video and 169.71 mylists. However, when the views were based on the more accurate mean total, Len and Rin achieved 355 views/16 mylists and 349 views/16 mylists respectively per video, ranking last among the top 6 VOCALOIDs. However, the Kagamine software was the only VOCALOID package to be be in all top 6 lists besides GUMI.link In February 2014, Vocaloid Otaku user "Dessert>desert" decided to run a test to see how many illegal Vocaloid downloads had been made via torrent. The Kagamine package was ranked the 3rd most popular illegal of the singular package downloads, with 4,777 downloads. They were beaten by the Mayu at 11,404 and VY2v3 at 12,434 downloads.link In 2015 a survey was published that showed Kagamine Rin was the 3rd most popular Vocaloid in 2014 on website Nico Video. Kagamine Len was the 6th most popular Vocaloid in 2014.link |- |Achievements= *First dual voicebanks released with two "VOCALOIDs" in one package *Only dual voicebanks released for VOCALOID2 *First male (Len) released for VOCALOID2 *First VOCALOIDs to be updated *First vocal (Len) released not to be the same gender as the provider *First male (Len) to be Appended }} Gallery References External links Navigation Category:Kagamine Rin/Len Category:Crypton Future Media, Inc. Category:SEGA Category:VOCALOID Category:VOCALOID2 Category:VOCALOID4 Category:Character Vocal Series Category:Feminine vocalists Category:Masculine vocalists Category:Bilingual vocalists Category:Japanese vocals Category:English vocals Category:Vocalists with voicebank upgrades